4. Choosing a language
Choosing a language​
When creating a plugin, you need to consider in advance the types of runtimes you need to support.
If you use, say Java, that means any user who uses your plugin needs to have a JDK installed on their machines and CI servers, as well as anything that verifies a Pact file created using that plugin even if the provider is written in a different language.
We suggest you choose a language that can be compiled and distributed as a single executable to multiple languages, such as Rust, Golang or .NET.
In this tutorial we will use Golang, which can be cross compliled to common targets.
Recommended targets​
We recommend you provide first class support for the following OS/Architecture targets, and provide a similar compatibility table in your Plugin docs:
| OS | Architecture | Supported |
|---|---|---|
| OSX | x86_64 | ✅ |
| OSX | aarch64 (arm) | ✅ |
| Linux | x86_64 | ✅ |
| Linux | aarch64 (arm) | ✅ |
| Windows | x86_64 | ✅ |
| Windows | aarch64 (arm) | ✅ |
GitHub provides support for compiling for such targets.